The art of cutting hair on a person's head to effect an attractive and stylish hair design, may be developed by one with manual dexterity, only after a considerable amount of training. Hair cuts may be performed by the use and manipulation of scissors in one hand, using a comb and/or the fingers of the other hand to lift the hair free of the scalp to avoid cutting excessive amounts and clusters, and/or leaving irregularities in the contour of the cut. Electric clippers have traditionally been used primarily on male patrons to define the perimeter line of the haircut on the neck and about the ears and to remove the hair below the perimeter line by clipping the hair down to skin level.
Whatever cutting procedure is employed, the clipped hairs naturally drop on the floor as well as onto the shoulders and neck of the client, and smaller particles are suspended in the atmosphere. This necessitates a post-haircut cleanup and poses health and sanitation risks. Others have proposed the use of vacuum means to remove hair particles as they are severed, but such means generally impede manipulation of the cutting tool, and often block the vision of the operator. In addition, the vacuum nozzle and attachments constitute articles of some weight to be handled by the operator, often making the cutting of hair cumbersome and more difficult to control.